Guiding arrangement for material to be wrapped between moving foils



Oct. 22, 1968 BECK GUIDING ARRANGEMENT FOR MATERIAL TO BE.

WRAPPED BETWEEN MOVING FOILS Filed May 12, 1966 Fig. l

12 12a 26a 17 2O lnvenfor:

/5 0/2.s Ba r United States PatentO 3,406,494 GUIDING ARRANGEMENT FOR MATERIAL TO BE WRAPPED BETWEEN MOVING FOILS Hans Beck, Urbanstrasse 27, Nurtingen,

Wurttemberg, Germany Filed May 12, 1966, Ser. No. 549,677 Claims priority, application Germany, May 15, 1965, B 81,945 7 Claims. (Cl. 53-372) The present invention concerns a guiding arrangement for goods to be wrapped between moving foil webs which at a connecting station are connected to each other along at least one edge of the foil webs, the edges of said foil Webs being held by transporting means.

With heretofore known wrapping methods of the above mentioned general type, it is possible to wrap the goods only loosely in the envelope formed by the connecting process. This is due to the fact that it is impossible to carry out the connecting process so close to the goods as it would be desirable for a tightly fitting envelope. Also when employing foil semi-hoses as wrapping material, there will at least at one side of the goods remain a not completely filled envelope pocket.

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which will permit also on wrapping machines for goods to be wrapped between foil webs to wrap the goods with a tightly fitting envelope.

It is another object of this invention to provide an apparatus of the above mentioned type which is relatively simple in construction and reliable in operation.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will appear more clearly from the following specification in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a top view of a guiding arrangement according to the present invention with a wrapping station for wrapping goods between foils.

FIG. 2 represents a section along the line 2-2 of FIG. 1 during a first wrapping phase.

FIG. 3 is a section along the line 33 of FIG. 1 showing a second wrapping phase.

FIG. 4 illustrates a section taken along the line 44 of FIG. 1 and shows a third wrapping phase without the connecting station.

The above mentioned objects have been realized according to the present invention which is characterized in that ahead of the connecting station the guiding apparatus has a restriction which will bulge the material in a direction perpendicular to the plane of transportation while within said station there is provided a form which holds the material in said bulged or upset condition.

Such bulging or upsetting will also be able, within the range within which the connection takes place, to smooth the foils in view of the pulling forces occurring in the foils. At the same time, the device according to the present invention can also be used as centering and aligning device for the material moving toward the connecting station.

It is advantageous to provide the restriction at two rails of which the distance measured therebetween transverse to the foil web decreases in the direction toward the connecting station. This represents a particularly simple form of a restriction or narrowing path for the transverse upsetting of a plurality of articles to be wrapped. Advantageously, the rails form an image to each other with regard to the central axis of transportation while the distance between said rails measured transverse to the path of the foils decreases linearly in the direction toward the connecting station. In this way, symmetrical conditions and a uniform transverse upsetting of the material will be obtained. Expediently, the distance between the rails in the direction transverse to the path of the foils remains constant within the connecting station. In this way it will be assured that the shape of the material will not change during the connecting operation so that completely uniform connections can be obtained. It is furthermore advantageous to design the rails as double rails arranged above each other. These double rails are vertically spaced from each other in such away that they form a free passage for the marginal portions of the foils which pass between said rails to the transporting means guiding said marginal portions. In this way the marginal foil areas may be guided at half the height of the material to be wrapped and may be grasped by means of the transporting means. In this Way a good guiding of the foils in the vicinity of the connecting station is obtained. Such rails can easily be installed in already existing installations.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, FIG. 1 shows only a bed 10 of a wrapping machine which latter may be of any standard design. The said bed 10 has a tablelike elevation 10a having at both sides thereof lower and upper guiding rails 11, 12 respectively. Those surfaces of said guiding rails which face each other are provided with guiding grooves 11a and 12a respectively. All guiding rails 11, 12 are in a manner not shown in the drawing either directly or indirectly firmly connected to the machine bed 10. In grooves 11a, 12a there are guided elastic conveyor belts 13, 14 of rectangular cross section which pass over rollers. These conveyor belts are at the same speed pulled through the grooves in the direction of the arrow A. In a station of the wrapping machine which is not shown in the drawing and which precedes the portion of bed 10 shown in the drawing, the material is piece by piece placed upon a lower thermoplastic foil web 15 of which the drawing shows the pieces 16, 19, 20 and 21. Thereupon the lower foil web and the material placed thereon are covered by a likewise thermoplastic upper foil web 17. The marginal areas of the foil are moved between conveyors belts 13 and 14 which are sufiiciently pressed against each other so as to feed the webs of foil therebetween toward a welding station 18. Finally, on a further not illustrated device which may be of any standard design, the foil webs 15, 17 have previously been provided between the individual pieces of the goods with transverse separating welding seams 22,23, 24. The foils 15 and 17 as well as the pieces of the goods placed thereon pass at the same speed to the separating welding station 18 for the longitudinal seams. By means of the welding seams, the foils are on one hand welded to each other along the seam and on the other hand are separated from each other within the welding seam or at least are processed for any easy separation of the foil web pieces.

Adjacent to guiding rails 11 and 12, upper and lower guiding rails 26 and 27 are firmly mounted on machine bed 10 at both sides thereof in such a way that bet-ween the superimposed guiding rails 26 and 27 those foil web portions have a free passage which are located adjacent to those marginal portions of the foils which are engaged by the conveyor belts 13 and 14. The distance between said guiding rails measured in the direction transverse to the 'foil web is over a considerable portion of the length of the rails less than the normal width of the goods. The guiding rails 26 and 27 have feeding sections 26a, 27a the width of which decreases toward the separating welding station 18, and also have sections 26b, 27b of uniform width, said sections 26b and 27b being located further inside station 18.

Inasmuch as the piece 16 shown in the drawing has not yet contacted the feeding or introducing sections 26a, 27a, the said piece lies flat on table 10a as shown in FIG. 2. Thus, in the envelope formed by the foils 15 and 17 there will form the empty pockets 28 which are not filled by the piece 16. That piece which in the drawing has been designated with the reference numeral 20, in contrast to piece 16, has in view of the narrowing of the path by the introducing sections 26a, 27a already undergone an upsetting or bulging operation to such an extent that the piece 20 arches upwardly thereby, pressing foil 17 upwardly and making it taut. Foil 15 furthermore slides along the top side of table a. As long ,as the goods pass between the rail sections 26b, 27b without additional arching, approximately at the stations 30 one longitudinal welding seam 30a each is produced. After the goods leave this welding station and the guiding rails, the goods can, as shown in connection with piece 21 in FIG. 4, resume their original flat position whereby also the taut pocket 28 will be filled and the goods will be tightly enveloped by foils and 17. After this straightening out of the goods, the thus formed packages are conveyed to a belt conveyor 31. The superimposed guiding rails 26a, 27a have in the example illustrated together with their mutual distance approximately the height of the wrapped goods. Guiding rails 26 and 27 may also have differently formed feeding or introducing sections 26a, 27a or, if symmetrical conditions are not required, may be arranged at one side only. The guiding device can be employed with continuous and also discontinuous wrapping operations. Those surfaces of the guiding device which through the intervention of the foils press upon the goods may also be covered by belts which move along, are driven or not driven. As an example for the goods suitable for being wrapped by an apparatus according to the present invention may be mentioned well bound piles of paper or non-bound piles of paper, such as napkins, copying books, textiles, articles of synthetic material, small parts, etc. While in connection with the present invention a device has been described which operates according to the separating welding method, it is also possible, when no thermoplastic foils are used, ahead and at station 18 to connect the two foils by adhesives or by folding or pressing methods, or the like.

It is, of course, to be understood that the present invention is, by no means, limited to the particular arrangement shown in the drawings but also comprises any modifications within the scope of the appended claims. It may also be mentioned that if the wrapping foils are plastic synthetic foils, as means employed at the cutting station for cutting the foils and producing a connection or fusing of the foils there may be employed a device as disclosed in my co-pending application entitled, Cutting-Welding Device for Thermoplastic Synthetic Foils, based on my German application B 81,946 filed in Germany on May 15, 1965, and filed in the United States of even date herewith.

It may also be mentioned that while the longitudinal welding seam 30a at the stations 30 may be produced by any corresponding standard machine, a machine as described for instance in United Kingdom Patent 1,007,- 573 has proved satisfactory in this respect.

What I claim is:

1. An arrangement for wrapping goods in foils, which includes: a bed, a connecting station supported by said bed for joining foils around goods, guiding means supported by said bed...for guiding webs of foil together with the goods to be wrapped therebetween to said connecting station, said guiding means including a restriction ahead of said connecting station and defining a passage for the goods to be wrapped of a width less than the normal extension of said goods in the direction transverse to the direction of the movement of saidlgoods toward said connecting station wherebysaid goods is forced to bulge upwardly, means arrangedat said connecting station for maintaining said goods in bulged condition while passing said connecting station, and means arranged at said connecting station for producing a connection of the foils which confine said goods therebetween, said connection. being effected along at least one line in the longitudinal directio of said guiding means.

2. An arrangement according ot claim 1, in which said guiding means includes rail means spaced from each other in a direction transverse to the movement ofsaid goods toward said connecting station, thespacing of said rail means at the entrance end thereof for said goods being greater than the normal extension of said goods in the direction transverse to the direction of movement of said goods toward said connecting station while the spacing of said rail means gradually decreases toward said connecting station to a width considerably less than the normal extension of said goods in the direction transverse to the movement thereof to said connecting station whereby said goods when passing through said rail means will gradually be bulged in an upward direction.

3. An arrangement according to claim 2, in which said rail means are arranged as an image to each other with regard to the central plane of the path of movement of the goods toward said connecting station, the spacing between said rail means linearly decreasing toward said connecting station.

4. An arrangement according to claim 2, in which said connecting station includes additional rail means substantially uniformly spaced from each other by a distance equalling substantially the narrowest spacing of said rail means with decreasing spacing for maintaining the goods in bulged condition while passing said connecting station,

said additional rail means forming an extension of the rail means with decreasing spacing.

5. An arrangement according to claim 1, in which the height of the guiding means approximately equals the height of the goods to be wrapped.

6. An arrangement according to claim 1, in which the guiding means are formed by two pairs of superimposed rails, the spacing between the two superimposed rails of each pair being such as to permit a free passage therethrough of the marginal areas of the foils.

7. An arrangement according to claim 6, which includes conveyor belt means movable between each pair of superimposed rails-and operable to engage and transport the marginal areas of the foils to be conveyed to said connecting station. References Cited FOREIGN PATENTS 1,381,075 10/1964 France. 

1. AN ARRANGEMENT FOR WRAPPING GOODS IN FOILS, WHICH INCLUDES: A BED, A CONNECTING STATION SUPPORTED BY SAID BED FOR JOINING FOILS AROUND GOODS, GUIDING MEANS SUPPORTED BY SAID BED FOR GUIDING WEBS OF FOIL TOGETHER WITH THE GOODS TO BE WRAPPED THEREBETWEEN TO SAID CONNECTING STATION, SAID GUIDING MEANS INCLUDING A RESTRICTION AHEAD OF SAID CONNECTING STATION AND DEFINING A PASSAGE OR THE GOODS TO BE WRAPED OF A WIDTH LESS THAN THE NORMAL EXTENSION OF SAID GOODS IN THE DIRECTION TRANSVERSE TO THE DIRECTION OF THE MOVEMENT OF SAID GOODS TOWARD SAID CONNECTING STATION WHEREBY SAID GOODS IN FORCED TO BULGE UPWARDLY, MEANS ARRANGED AT SAID CONNECTING STATION FOR MAINTAINING SAID GOODS IN BULGED CONDITION WHILE PASSING SAID CONNECTING STATION, AND MEANS ARRANGED AT SAID CONNECTING STATION FOR PRODUCING A CONECTION OF THE FOILS WHICH CONFINE SAID GOODS THEREBETWEEN, SAID CONNECTION BEING EFFECTED ALONG AT LEAST ONE LINE IN THE LONGITUDINAL DIRECTION OF SAID GUIDING MEANS. 